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Through the decades that Bailey walked his wooded wonderland, he had a fun way of making hand-painted signs to mark special spots where specific memories were made. “Ann’s first quail” records the place granddaughter Ann Sharbrough had her first hunting success. The signs also served as reminders of specific hunting stories. There was another reason for Bailey’s signage, including his favorite: “One-Hoss Wagon.” “I’ve got these signs out here also because if I tell somebody a good place to hunt is down by the One-Hoss Wagon, he’ll know exactly where I mean,” Bailey told Nancy Darnell in an interview for The New South magazine in 1974. “If I said, ‘Go down to the north field,’ he might not know what I was talking about.” Bailey’s original signs have long disappeared, thanks to weather and wear. But his family, several years ago, had new signs made with plans to place them where Bailey once tacked them to the trees. The land and the lodge remain a part of a rich legacy passed from Bailey to his daughters, his grandchildren and the generations of family to come. “I wouldn’t take anything for growing up in Coffeeville, and the farm keeps us connected with Coffeeville,” Kirk said. “It’s not just a farm, though. It’s so much more to me. Even before the lodge was built it was such a treat to go to the land.” “And now Daddy’s grandchildren love it so much too, they take care of it and spend time there. It’s a special place.” The sprawling land at Quail Hills in Coffeeville has been a special place to the Bailey family since the 1920s when, as a child, family patriarch John Provine Bailey began hunting on it. In 1960, after taking ownership of the land, Bailey built a lodge on it that still serves as a family respite and home to special items including Bailey’s comprehensive personal hunting journal.
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INVITATION | SEPTEMBER 2020
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I've got these signs out here also because if I tell somebody a good place to hunt is down by the One-Hoss Wagon, he'll know exactly where I mean. — John Bailey